HOUSTON – The HCU beach volleyball team gets the 2024 season going this Friday and Saturday with the Third Coast College Classic held at the Huskies' home facility, Third Coach Volleyball Club.
This year's field is stacked with No. 4 TCU, No. 6 LSU, No. 15 Washington and Central Arkansas joining the Huskies in the two-day tournament with all five teams playing two matches per day. HCU opens vs. Central Arkansas on Friday, Feb. 23 at 11:00 a.m. and closes the day with a 5:00 p.m. matchup vs. LSU. On Saturday, Feb. 24, the Huskies will face Washington at 11:00 a.m. and then take on TCU at 5:00 p.m. in the final match of the tournament.
The HCU roster boasts nine returning letterwinners, including senior
Kristen Kleymeyer who is tied for ninth on the program's all-time wins list with 43. Kleymeyer posted a 19-14 record last season playing exclusively at the twos with
Lindsay Harris. She an all-conference selection in 2022. Also returning for the Huskies is
Abbey Bufkin, a senior with 39 career wins between two seasons at ULM and one at HCU. Last season, she finished with a 16-19 overall record.
The Huskies were picked to finish third in the Southland Conference in a preseason poll of head coaches and sports information directors, with reigning champion Texas A&M-Corpus Christi picked first and Boise State coming in second.
Last season, HCU posted a 17-18 overall record that included a win over 10
th-ranked Stanford and saw the Huskies reach the quarterfinals of the SLC tournament in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Central Arkansas is in its first season under John Newberry, the Sugar Bears' indoor volleyball head coach since 2020. UCA finished last season with an 8-20 record and opened the season against the Huskies with HCU earning a 5-0 win. The Huskies are 8-5 all-time vs. UCA and have won seven of the last eight meetings.
The sixth-ranked LSU Tigers finished the 2023 season with a 27-13 record, falling to fourth-ranked Florida State in the second round of the NCAA Championship tournament. LSU boasts three preseason all-Coastal Collegiate Athletic Conference selections with Ellie Shank and Parker Bracken returning from last season's team and transfer Gabi Bailey joining from College of Charleston.
No. 15 Washington heads to Houston for the first-ever meeting between the two Huskies programs. The Huskies went 21-15 last season and return fifth-year senior Scarlett Dahl who posted a 24-14 record. Washington went 3-0 vs. Southland Conference opponents last year, defeating New Orleans, 3-0, and twice defeating Boise State, 3-2 and 4-1.
The fourth-ranked Horned Frogs are coming off a season in which they won their first 29 matches and finished with a 37-3 overall record, falling to third -ranked USC at the NCAA Championships. TCU returns reigning CCSA Freshman of the Year and preseason CUSA Player of the Year Anhelina Khmil who posted a 26-3 record during her first collegiate season. The Huskies faced the Horned Frogs twice last season with TCU earning a pair of 5-0 wins.
Following this weekend's opening tournament, HCU heads to Baton Rouge, La. for the Tiger Beach Challenge on Mar. 2-3 with Southern Miss, LSU, North Alabama and Nebraska on the schedule.
